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Hinds CC career-tech options shine at Vicksburg career fair

Tevin Sylvester doesn’t read books when it comes to electrical circuitry. He chooses to stare it down – and get the information he needs.

“I can’t learn anything about mechanics by reading a manual,” Sylvester said, studying the ins and outs of a three-way switch and other lighting systems with Electrical Technology Instructor Timothy White at Thursday’s Career Exploration Day at the Vicksburg Convention Center.

Hinds Community College Electrical Technology Instructor Timothy White speaks with Tevin Sylvester, a Vicksburg High School senior, as high school students from the Vicksburg area visited a Career Expo at the Vicksburg Convention Center on Thursday, Oct. 22, 2015. (Hinds Community College/April Garon)

“I need to take it apart and see how it works,” the Vicksburg High School senior said. “A few months ago, I took apart my xBox 360 and a PlayStation 3 and put them back together again.”

Sylvester and about 1,200 fellow seniors and juniors in the Vicksburg Warren School District who attended the event got to read, touch and, in some cases, work the controls with instructors from about 40 career and technical programs available across Hinds’ six campuses. Supplementing that were exhibits from private employers and local government.

“The whole purpose is for them to explore careers,” District Director of Enrollment Services Kathryn Cole said. “We feel strongly about making kids aware of career opportunities and the education it takes to get them there.

“They can get some hands-on experience so they can really figure out what these careers are all about and make some informed decisions.”

VHS senior Darius Tucker wants to parlay his love for helping people into a career in physical therapy or the medical field, but he got to move some dirt on Thursday, thanks to a simulator courtesy of Stribling Equipment LLC.

Darius Tucker, a Vicksburg High School senior, completes the excavator simulation at the Stribling Equipment LLC booth at Career Exploration Day at Vicksburg Convention Center on Thursday, Oct. 22, 2015. From left to right: Todd Martin, Stribling training manager; Tamya Hackett, Vicksburg High School senior; Tucker; William Cohen, Vicksburg High School senior; and Gary Broadwater, Stribling Corporate Inventory Control Manager. (Hinds Community College/April Garon)

The machine allowed attendees to climb behind the wheel of a virtual front end loader that showed in high definition what kind of job they’d do on a construction site. Next to the flat-screen monitor was the actual front end loader, neighbored by a truck belonging to Empire Truck Sales LLC students could climb into. Each company was a major sponsor of the event.

“It was fun to try it out,” Tucker said. “I’m wanting to do physical therapy because I like helping people.”

Other hands-on experiences at the expo featured free haircuts from the college’s Barbering program, a sample of leather refined by ISA TanTec, which began production in Warren County earlier this year, a full-size Entergy bucket truck and a police cruiser belonging to the Vicksburg Police Department.

The wide range of career-tech programs available at Hinds appealed to those students still mulling their futures.

“I’m visiting the tables that touch my interests, which have been music, culinary and nursing,” said Taylor Middleton, a Warren Central High School senior visiting tables at the expo with fellow senior Jordan Moncrief.

Jordan Moncrief gets his pulse taken as Taylor Middleton looks on. Both are seniors at Warren Central High School. High school juniors and seniors from the Vicksburg visited a Career Expo at the Vicksburg Convention Center on Thursday, Oct. 22, 2015. (Hinds Community College/April Garon)

Author: Danny Barrett

Danny Barrett Jr. is a 18-year journalist with a Bachelor of Science degree in Mass Communication from Nicholls State University in Thibodaux, La. Barrett covered county government and business at The Vicksburg Post for 10 years and came to Hinds Community College in 2015.